Following Federal Judge Martin Feldman's ruling earlier this month that upheld Louisiana's ban on same-sex marriage, the first federal ruling to uphold a marriage ban since the Supreme Court gutted DOMA in United States v. Windsor, state officials in Louisiana have asked the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals to fast-track the appeal of Judge Feldman's ruling and lump it together with a similar case concerning Texas' ban on same-sex marriage already before the 5th Circuit. Equality on Trial reports:
The request notes that there's already an appeal pending in one marriage case – DeLeon v. Perry, challenging Texas' same-sex marriage ban – and the state asks the court to assign the same three-judge panel to both cases.
The request to put the case on a fast-track comes as amicus curiae (“friend of the court”) briefs are already being filed in the Texas appeal. The filing assumes that the Fifth Circuit will put at least the Texas case on the November argument calendar. There's enough time for both appeals to be argued in November.
The request is unopposed.
Meanwhile, we now have the ruling from Louisiana State Judge Edward Rubin who, contrary to Judge Feldmand, recently found the state's ban on same-sex marriage to be unconstitutional. READ it, AFTER THE JUMP…
However, same-sex couples in Louisiana still cannot marry despite Judge Rubin's ruling. As BuzzFeed's Chris Geidner reports, state officials claim that "final judgment" is still needed before the matter can move forward:
Update: @RichardPerque tells me he & other legal folks in Louisiana conferred & reached same conclusion as AG: final judgment still needed.
— Chris Geidner (@chrisgeidner) September 23, 2014
